San Jose will pay $395,000 to two women fire captains to settle gender-bias suit

14-Jun-2012

San Jose will pay $395,000 to settle a gender-bias lawsuit by two female fire captains claiming that Chief William McDonald passed them over for promotions that went to less-qualified men.

The settlement in the lawsuit filed last June by Debra Ward and Patricia Tapia suggests that gender bias concerns continue to plague the department even under the new leadership of McDonald, an outsider who took over two years ago. The city in 2009 paid fire engineer Julie LaBlanc $200,000 to settle her lawsuit over pornographic magazines in her fire station. Click Here to read the entire story.